Ok touching wild animals, riding elephants, is just some of the most sought after experiences for backpackers, travellers, etc. To countries like, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam. The reason I’m just saying these countries is because, they are the ones I have personally visited & have experienced, therefore, I can comment.

After taking part in the majority of them I can honestly say I would never do it again. Why ? I will outline a few experiences below.

I will never forget my visit to the bridge over the river Kwai, which, included elephant trekking. It was a beautiful day on the drive from Bangkok to the bridge, which always makes everything seem so much better. When we finally arrived in the town, after about a 5 minute walk, there was a baby leopard it was adorable, I just wanted to hold it but was obviously a bit sceptical at first. So I watched a while of how things were done. First I noticed the chain around its neck then, the handler kept using swift hand movement to control through fear & constantly feeding it bottles of milk when tourists were holding it, to for control reasons obviously. I will never forget the next part, the woman who went instead of me sat down, the cat did not want to play anymore it clearly had enough it was clear from its growling. Regardless, it didn’t stop the handler trying to make money. He forced the cat onto the woman’s lap, it was ok for a second then it locked onto her leg in a gentle way very cleverly, not, piercing the skin. It was telling them in it’s own way to stop what they were doing to it. Luckily enough, the woman was super calm which kept the cat calm, resulting in it letting go, followed by, a smack of a stick by the handler. Furthermore, he holds up the bottle & says to me, do you still want to go. I couldn’t believe it “ I actually looked at him in a total confused state & said no it’s clearly obvious he’s had enough” he laughed & said no-no he is fine. It’s because of people like him, doing things like that, which get poor innocent animals killed, because they were protecting themselves from people like him. To top it off it was a baby, clealy, they stole it from it’s mother, horrible.

After the ordeal, the tour carried on to the elephant trekking & I was already pissed off at what I had witnessed so wasn’t really up for it. We arrived at the place, there were some elephants in the water around us they looked happy I began to think, ok not so bad snap out of it. Then, when we got up on the podium to get on the elephant I remember thinking, I don’t want to do this the elephants looked so sick but, they had already started moving. There was a little girl no more than 10 leading the way, the elephant was being slightly disobedient so she jabbed a big steel stick in the elephants eye to control the poor thing, I was horrified. It lasted all of 20 mins the whole time I just wanted to get off & see was the elephant ok. When we got back to base they wouldn’t answer anything I asked, I remember feeding the elephants some bananas, the poor things were exhausted their faces & everything were sunken. To say it was horrible is an understatement.

Look at the dehydration if this is not the picture of sadness i really don’t know what is.It just wants to be let go free it wasn’t born to be chained to a bench

Then there is the other side of it all, if they really knew how cruel they were being, would they still do it ? They live in countries full of corrupt governments that leave them no option’s, so the people have to do what they can, just to survive.

In Cambodia the human trafficking rates are appalling because people have to do what they can to survive while wealthier & educated people pay for sex with babies, disgusting. Read my blog from my other website A SHORT STORY ABOUT CAMBODIA

So really, when you think about it, it really is up to the tourist to not support this type of entertainment because after all, we are the ones keeping it in business !!! I always hear people say ohh but come on everyone else is doing it, so what, be different say no. Thinking like that is using denial to make ourselves feel better about what we are doing, I say this because, it’s exactly how I was thinking until I did it even though deep down I knew it was wrong & still did it. I denied myself the reality of it until I had the experience of it & felt the guilt instead.

My Motto

"Everyone wants a wonderful world filled with peace, happiness, joy, etc. but we have no intentions of looking at ourselves, our minds, our behaviour or what comes out of our own mouth. Its very important to always remember, as much as anyone else, change for you, starts with you.

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Hi everyone my name is siobhan, Im from Dublin, Ireland.
Me & my sister began to travel the 🌎 in 2012 we lived in Australia for 2 years & Canada for six months just visiting all the other places for shorter periods. In that time everything in my life changed, i woke up 💯Now I would call myself a fully self-aware person. In my opinion travel is the best teacher in the whole world it will take every belief you have & make you question it. I learned so much about myself & the world.
I've taken part in many courses which have been really enjoyable & life changing. One of my favourites is psychology. I just ❤️ it so much. It explains everything in such a way I can totally understand & I love Sigmund Frueds work. In my opinion it explains everything in a nutshell & I believe he understood the world & the people in on it very well 😁
Some of my favourite things are:
Photography 🎥
Psychology 🤔
Animals 🐶
Nature 🌿
Food 🥘
I have two blogs my photography blog & personal development blog. I hope there is something on either of them that you find of interest. Enjoy :)p

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